Misawa maintainers keep F-16s flying

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jessica Lockoski
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNS) --  Six engineers from the Air Force Engineering and Technical Services team here provide technical support to maintainers and aircrew for F-16 Fighting Falcon troubleshooting.

With the F-16 aircraft airframe being about 30 years old keeping the jets in top form increases challenges, such as electrical malfunctions and flight control issues, said Mark Rupprecht, Misawa Air Base's AFETS team lead.

"We become engrained within the maintenance group as technical advisors," he said. "We get hired based on specific specialties that mirror what the maintainers do. There can be something significantly wrong with the aircraft that will exhaust the technical instructions maintainer's use in order to troubleshoot it. They have done everything they can, and they still can't fix it; that's when we come out."

AFETS team members' specialties include airframe, propulsion, avionics and weapons systems. In many cases, technicians are prior military and possess numerous years of experience with the F-16s and other fighter aircraft.

They also belong to an Air Force-wide community of more than 400 members, headquartered at Joiunt Base Langley-Eustis, Va. With communal information sources to tap into, AFETS technicians can find a solution to almost any F-16 problem.

Mr. Rupprecht said networking with other AFETS members and having working relationships with Lockheed Martin (the designer of the F-16) are valuable in solving the hardest problems. Relying of a larger team allows technicians to gain lot of access to engineering and design system theory and database of information devoted to problems found in past F-16 troubleshooting.

After finding technical solutions, AFETS members explain their findings with the maintenance Airmen. The technicians provide formalized classes to teach trouble shooting techniques and overview new testing equipment as it becomes available with the evolving aircraft.

Staff Sgt. Courtney Franks, a 35th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron F-16 avionics craftsman, sometimes relies on AFETS technicians when he needs additional expertise.

"I was working a flight control problem," Sergeant Franks said. "It was pretty obscure, so we called an AFETS guy up, and through his resources, he pulled a short list of fixes for the problem."

Sergeant Franks said the technician shaved off about two weeks of troubleshooting time for the maintainers.

"I will always give him an ear to what he has to say, because he was right on it," Sergeant Franks said. "I don't think we would have found the problem anywhere near as fast if he hadn't been around to help. AFETS technicians are always that stop-gap between, 'Darn if I know,' and 'You guys have really seen that problem before. Help us out!'"